A four-story apartment building collapsed this morning in Marseille and has left at least five injured, although the city’s mayor, Benoît Payan, has already warned that “we must prepare for fatalities.” According to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who went to the area early in the morning, there would be between four and 10 people under the rubble. “Four for sure,” he said.
The incident originated after midnight with a strong explosion in this building located on Tivoli street, next to the Plaine neighborhood, known for its nightlife and full of bars and restaurants. The specific causes that originated this detonation, which caused the collapse of the building hours later, are still unknown.
There are 100 firefighters and 50 policemen working with canine units trying to find out if there are victims among the rubble, although the rescue work is getting complicated due to a fire that they cannot put out. “We are facing a phenomenon of persistent fire that lasts for several hours, with extremely high temperatures,” said the mayor of Marseille.
The firefighters “are working in absolutely complicated circumstances, at risk to their own lives,” he added. It could take hours to put out the fire. There are about thirty people who have been evacuated in nearby buildings. Two of them have been affected by partial collapses and also threaten to fall, according to Darmanin.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said on Twitter that “the searches continue with important means deployed. Thanks to the firefighters and agents mobilized.”
“It is a very provisional balance, we have to wait to find out more, there are people who are looking for their relatives. All the people who are registered in the property are not located and there is a lot of concern,” said the Minister of Housing, Olivier Klein, to the Franceinfo chain.
Payan has spoken of a “huge deflagration” and both he and Darmanin have ruled out that it is a building that was in poor condition. “We cannot yet draw any conclusions,” said the mayor of Marseille, who has said that now “the absolute priority is the search for people who could be under the rubble.”
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